


Dead People Make Tea

by CostumersDelight (CostumerDelight)



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Molly Lives!, Molly doesn't trust Caduceus, Pranks, lots of crying at the end, post Shady Creek Run, post rez molly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-12 18:27:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19234684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CostumerDelight/pseuds/CostumersDelight
Summary: Molly doesn't trust the new addition to the Mighty Nein in his absence. So he tries to make the in-angerable Caduceus mad.





	Dead People Make Tea

**Author's Note:**

> Somehow the Widomauk server returned my muse and my muse decided "Molly and Cad angst" was on the docket.

Mollymauk glowers at the gray-furred man as he begrudgingly accepts a cup of the firbolg’s tea. Caduceus gives him an easy smile and continues his rounds to the rest of the team, checking if anyone needs healing, food, tea, or just some water. Molly immediately thinks this guy is a suck-up and especially when he pays particular attention to Caleb and Jester (reasonably so, as they had been the ones to go down in the fight just prior to Molly waking up after the resurrection ritual was completed two days prior, but he wouldn’t know that).

He didn’t know exactly what happened or who brought him back, but he knows that for the briefest moment before reawakening next to the fire, he had felt all his friends around him, hugging him and crying and someone kissed his cheek, while someone else held his hands (or did two of his friends have a hand each?) and another yet was smoothing his hair.

In the hour he had been awake so far now, everyone but Jester and Caleb checking on him, he learned that after he fell against Lorenzo, the group went to retrieve the rest of their party with Keg, coming across another firbolg named Nila whose partner and son had been taken as well. And then they found Caduceus at his family’s grove and cemetery. He was regaled with the story about how they fought Lorenzo and his men, killed them all, and then rescued their friends. Their time spent scouring the area for a cleric of high esteem to come with them with Ophelia after checking in with her and finding their task complete, and taking the time to resurrect Molly and have him in the enchanted cart with everyone who chose to stay there. It was a few nights out from returning to Zadash that the caravan was attacked, and the Mighty Nein sprung to action to defend.

But no one would tell him what happened during that fight, other than the obvious markings on Jester. Nott fretted between the two of them, occasionally patting Molly’s own arm and speaking to him like he was a child taken ill in bed until Yasha next to him gave her a look (he couldn’t see what kind) and she went back to Caleb’s side.

“How’s that, Miss Jester?” Caduceus asks, handing her a cup of tea after a moment of inspection. “Is it sweet enough?”  
“Yes, Caduceus, thank you,” she replies, a bright smile on her face after she takes a sip. “I’m so happy you had honey at your home. Thank you for bringing it with!”

“ _Caduceus_ ,” Molly whines, holding his untouched cup out and mimicking a bit of Jester’s accent, “I would like some honey in my tea, too.”

“Of course, Mister Mollymauk,” Caduceus says with a soft smile, bringing over the little pot of honey and drizzling some in. Molly bristles at the familiar tone Caduceus speaks to him, to all the Mighty Nein, with and scowls a bit. “Is that better?”

Molly sips at the tea and grimaces; now it tastes almost excruciatingly sweet. Maybe he had already gotten honey in his tea, and now he just ruined it with too much of the sweet nectar. He chances a look up at Caduceus, who still smiles at him and looks expectant for a reply.

“Yes, now it tastes better,” Molly says and slams the rest of the tea; it wasn’t hot to him, since he already ran quite hot as a tiefling, but the warmth still hits his stomach with a shock. He passes the cup back to Caduceus, who rinses it out quickly before pouring another cup of tea for him and adding just a bit of honey. Molly blinks as it is handed back with that ever-maddening soft smile and Caduceus continues around the fire. This sip is just perfectly sweet, and it makes Molly seethe.

“Mister Caleb, are you feeling any better?” Caduceus asks then, and Molly snaps to attention as he looks at the wizard, who had been hidden from sight by Fjord; the half-orc had just stood up and moved over to Jester at her beckoning. Caleb looks fine aside from some blood smears across his face and chest, but otherwise no worse for wear.

“Ja, thank you Herr Clay,” Caleb murmurs softly, taking the offered cup of tea and sipping it. Molly mumbles under his breath and leans back into the mountain of pillows, bedrolls, and blankets he had been propped up against to rest, and dozes off once more.

* * *

A few days later, back in Zadash, Molly suggests a trip to the bathhouse. It’s an easy agreement, but they had to check in with The Gentleman first and get their payment for the jobs completed. While in the Evening Nip, Molly buys everyone a round or two of shots and watches with amusement at Caduceus’s very startled expressions over the drinks. After some ales were had, Molly asks for some fire water from the barmaid and beckons for Caduceus to join him at the bar. He begins to explain that it’s fire water, and that it’s very good for after having shots. Caduceus eyes the shot glass for a moment, sniffs it, then downs it. Molly grins into his own shot glass as he takes it as well and watches Caduceus’s face as it turns from calm, to confusion, to shock. As he darts away from the bar and up the stairs to the outside, Jester shoots Molly a glare and chases after the firbolg; Molly just shrugs and goes back to his ale.

* * *

They head to the bathhouse the next day, Caduceus with a calm smile on his face again. Jester already chastised Molly for the firewater shots, but Caduceus had talked her down on it, saying he was willing to give it a try of his own accord. Molly thinks he hates the firbolg for how easily he flows with everything. Molly takes his time undressing, being the last one in the room as everyone else leaves. He finds Caduceus’s clothes and drops them into a refuse can before joining the rest of the group in the baths, relaxing and chuckling to himself.

Nott still dislikes the water, but she was beginning to slowly ease herself in. Caduceus and Jester head the attempts at getting her to swim. Molly sidles up to Yasha and asks her to help him scrub his back and wash his hair; he knows about Beau’s crush on Yasha since they first met up in Trostenwald, and wants Yasha to be happy again. So he’s going to do what he can to help, and that includes having Yasha help him in the bath so Beau can maybe find more confidence in herself to approach. Which, to his amusement, does happen.

“Er… Yasha, would you… want any help with your back?” Beauregard asks after Molly rinses off and lazily floats away in the bath. Yasha nods slightly, and he grins to himself as the two settle in.

“Mister Mollymauk,” Caduceus says gently a few minutes later, above the general din of the group discussing plans. Molly sits up and moves back to the wall of the bath, keeping his distance from the firbolg.

“What?”

“Would you like me to check your wounds and make sure you’re healing well?” The group silences and looks at Molly. It’s an uncomfortable amount of attention, not that he wouldn’t have loved it had it been on him for any other reason, but he silently shakes his head and lowers himself into the water until only his nose and eyes were left visible; much like Caleb had the first time they all bathed together as a group.

After a few more uncomfortable minutes of silence, Nott declares that she still hates water and rushes up and out of the baths. By the time Molly makes it into the changing room again, she is fully dressed with her arms crossed next to the exit doors, impatient for everyone else to change.

Caduceus is the last to enter the changing room as everyone else finishes dressing, Molly being the last of them to leave while Caduceus looks for his clothes. They all file outside the building to wait.

“What is taking him so long?” Fjord mutters aloud, heading back into the bathhouse after nearly fifteen minutes pass. Molly is too busy braiding Yasha’s hair to follow right away, but another five minutes go by before Beau looks at the doors.

“Something is wrong,” she says quietly, motioning for everyone to follow. The group walks back in and at the front desk is Caduceus with only a towel wrapped around his waist, already air-dried. He looks up and waves at the group before turning his attention back to the clerk.

“Nothing at all? Alright, thank you,” he finishes his conversation with her and walking forward to the group. “My clothes have gone missing, it seems.” Molly tries to act surprised with the rest of the group, but Caduceus seems to narrow his focus in on him. “Would anyone be willing to help me look in the changing room? I’m afraid I can’t leave here until I’m dressed, so any help to find my clothes is appreciated.”

“Oh, I prepared locate object today, Caduceus,” Jester pipes up, smiling wide, “I can find them if they’re nearby!” With a nod from Caduceus, she retrieves a small stick from her bag and begins the spell. After a few moments she races over to the refuse bin and rifles through it, holding up the clothes. “Who throws away clothes?” Caduceus gives a quick glance to Molly before letting Jester pile all his clothes into his free arm.

“Thank you, Miss Jester, I’ll get dressed quick so we can get going,” he says cheerfully. Jester nods and skips out of the bathhouse, everyone but Molly following behind her. He hangs back at the doors to the changing area and waits for Caduceus. When the firbolg comes up to him and gives him a questioning look again, Molly huffs and walks ahead of him out of the bathhouse to regroup.

“I made sure no one tried to swipe his stuff again while his back was turned,” Molly explains without prompting before starting off down the street.

* * *

A week or so later, the group sets off again towards the coast. One of the nights out, Nott and Molly take watch, but about halfway through, Caduceus taps Nott on the shoulder and says he can’t sleep, and has been watching her nod off the last half hour. Molly didn’t mind it, but he also doesn’t want to deal with Caduceus just yet. The entire time he has known him, Caduceus has been sickeningly nice, and from experience he knows no one is that nice all the time without some ulterior motive.

But when Caduceus settles in for watch, all he does is start to brew tea. Molly watches him for the next half hour, trying to pinpoint what his motives are. Beau had at one point given him back his tarot deck, and he had taken to shuffling it when focusing on something or idly sitting. But not since coming back, and he feels off not having it in hand.

“Caduceus,” Molly says, pulling the deck out of his pack, “can I give you a reading?” He shuffles the cards together a few times and fans them out in hand. Caduceus looks up from the water for a moment, smiling. “Just have to pick a card and let me see it so I can tell you what it means.”

“Sure thing,” Caduceus replies, picking out one of the cards and turning it over on top of the fanned cards. Judgement. Molly bites the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing aloud. It was perfect in name to mess with this recluse. “What’s that one mean?”

“Oh, it means that you are being watched carefully, that those around you know what you’re up to,” Molly says thoughtfully, picking up the card and looking intently at it; he tries to ignore the image of the body crawling out of the grave in the bottom corner as he inspects it, miming deep concentration. “It’s a warning to those who have bad intentions.”

“Hm. that’s interesting,” Caduceus mumbles, casting a look to the fire. “Would you say that card is for yourself?” The water kettle boils over a little bit before Caduceus takes it off the flame, pouring it into his teapot and letting the leaves steep. Molly stares at Caduceus the whole time he prepares a couple cups of tea for them, passing one to the tiefling as he sits down once more. “You ordered me alcohol after seeing that I was not a fan. I didn’t lie to Jester, either, I wouldn’t be against trying it if I had a choice in the matter and could prepare myself.” Molly sips his tea and tries to look as innocent as possible. “I’m a little disappointed, but I’m not upset.”

“You don’t seem to get upset,” Molly notes, gesturing with the teacup in his hand towards Caduceus. “I mean, you didn’t seem at all angry about what happened to your clothes.”

“I’m just glad they weren’t missing. I would have been extremely upset if my armor went missing,” Caduceus says quietly, tapping on it. “My sister made it for me before she left home. It’s the last thing I have of hers. I don’t know if she’s still alive, to be fair, so I would probably get very upset.”

“Oh...” Molly looks down into his cup and watches the drink swirl a little bit.

“I was the last person of my family to stay in my grove, and leaving it was difficult,” he continues, taking a sip of his tea. “There’s a mysterious blight upon it too, making everything change in an uncharacteristic way. And the Wildmother told me I would know when I was to leave to fix it.”

“I’m… I’m sorry, Caduceus,” Molly mutters, passing the teacup back to Caduceus. “I didn’t realize… well, anything. I was just...”

“Don’t worry about it,” the firbolg replies, refilling the cup instead of taking it. “You’ve just come back from death. You’re upset that you died, and you missed the recovery of your friends. Especially Yasha, who has been loathe to leave your side since you came back to her.” Caduceus looks over at the sleeping form of Yasha, who had curled up right next to Molly’s bedroll and was clutching at his blanket. “I’m glad that she was still passed out until after you were resurrected.”

“She would have either destroyed everything in her path or just wandered off as she does,” Molly muses, still holding the cup out. “I… I don’t deserve your kindness.”

“I’m just glad the refuse can was empty when you put my clothes in it,” Caduceus smiles. Molly hangs his head in shame. “I’m not mad. I’m new, you don’t trust me. That’s fine, I just want to make sure everyone is safe and healthy. Beau, Caleb, and Nott were extremely upset when they found me.” Caduceus looks over to their sleeping forms and nods at them. “I was pretty sure Caleb was about to tuck tail and run, even without Nott. They seem to be as close as anybody else, but Caleb… He was scared.”

“He’s fragile, I’ll agree with you there,” Molly sighs. “He’s definitely got some stuff to get through. I hope he’s able to face it, whatever it is.”

“He will. He’s fragile, but strong in his own right.” Caduceus looks back at the deck of cards sitting next to Molly. “So, what does the card I pulled really mean?”

“Okay, fine,” Molly sighs, retrieving the Judgement card from the deck again. “It means healing, renewal, and change, to step forward towards your future and face a challenge head on.” Molly flicks the corner of it before sliding it back into the deck and shuffling it again. “You’re really spot on. How are you so insightful?”

“It comes with the upbringing I had,” Caduceus admits. “You have to know how to comfort those who have lost a loved one best. In some cases, it’s allowing them to cry on your shoulder. Other cases, you have to explain the detailed process of burial and the life cycle below the dirt. In very rare cases,” he says pushing the extended teacup closer to Molly’s chest, “you go with the group and kill the guy who killed their friend.”

“Thank you for that,” Molly laughs, taking a sip of tea. “Your tea is really good, by the way.”

* * *

A few days after the exchange, Molly is alone on the final watch before dawn and carefully goes through Caduceus’s belongings for his tea set. Not having paid close attention to it, he didn’t recall what the set looked like but set to work. With enough time before everyone is to wake up for breakfast, he puts water on the fire to heat and drops some flowers and leaves into the teapot. Over the course of the past few days Molly had been collecting flowers he thought looked interesting and hid them in a pouch to dry a bit. The water comes to a boil and he pours it into the pot to steep and sets up the teacups for pouring into.

His companions begin stirring behind him, and Molly hums to himself gleefully as he pours his experimental tea into the cups. He doesn’t know exactly what flowers or leaves he gathered, but he was certain by their smells that they’d taste good together. Wasn’t that what tea making was? Molly looks back to his companions as he starts to pour the last cup, and loses his grip on the teapot.

“SHIT!”

It smashes against the rocks that make up the fire ring and the ceramic pieces scatter around him, knocking over all the cups and spilling their contents onto the already-dwindling fire. Molly’s commotion wakes everyone up immediately, springing to action for a fight, only to find Molly scrambling around in the hot coals of the fire for each piece of ceramic he could find.

“Shit, shit, shit, fuck, son of a bitch, this wasn’t supposed to happen,” he curses to himself.

“Molly...” Beau’s voice doesn’t register in Molly’s self-deprecating rant.

“Gonna make some tea to show my godsdamned appreciation to everyone and look what that gives me...”

“Molly?” Yasha chimes in but is ignored as well.

“...I fucking break the fucking tea set, fuck me, I’m gonna get killed again...”

“Mister Mollymauk?”

Molly bolts upright as Caduceus’s quiet whisper reaches his ears. Immediately, hot tears prickle at the corners of his eyes as he turns his head to look at everyone staring at him, and Caduceus walking forward to see the commotion.

“Caduceus… I’m… I’m so sorry,” Molly whines, feeling guilt, shame, and failure well up in his chest. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean… I was just… I wanted to make everyone tea and you had such a nice tea set and I thought everyone would be happy.” The tears poured down his face as he held out the pieces he had managed to recover. “Jester knows mending, right? You do? I’m so sorry. I don’t know how to fix it but won’t mending help? I’m so sorry, I’m sorry I’m sorry...”

Caduceus shakes his head softly. Molly can’t see his expression through the tears flowing freely from his eyes as his body shakes with his crying, but his first instinct is that Caduceus is probably not mad, the firbolg doesn’t get mad at anything, right? But… the tea set was from his home, and Molly’s heart sinks as he realizes the set probably was one of the last connections to his family and his home, and the tears redouble their cascade down his face.

Soft, gentle hands encompass his own and Molly looks up, trying desperately to blink away the tears from his eyes to meet Caduceus’s soft pink gaze.

“Hey, calm down, alright?” the firbolg smiles. “Thank you for the thought and gesture. This is just a set I found from the hideout in Shady Creek Run, I was using it to preserve my personal set. So don’t worry, okay?” He pulls Molly into a hug and pats soothingly down his back. Molly sobs openly again, clutching at the back of Caduceus’s shirt and burying his face into his shoulder. The position muffles his hearing, as rumblings from Caduceus come out and the feet around him start busying themselves with something.

A few minutes pass and Molly finally stills, tears still slowly trickling down his face as he pulls away and hiccups lightly.

“I’m sorry… I guess I haven’t… I really haven’t come to terms with what’s happened,” Molly admits, wiping at his face. “And I’ve been so mad at you, I felt like you replaced me and I wanted to make myself useful, like I still belong here.”

“Of course you belong here, Mollymauk,” Yasha pipes up, patting his shoulder.

“I know that, dear, I wasn’t done,” Molly laughs quietly. “The puzzle has changed slightly is all. I have to figure out how I fit in again.”

“Did you have some tea you wanted us to brew?” Caleb asks, and Molly produces his pouch of assorted foliage. Caduceus gives it a mistrusting look and takes it before Caleb can, giving it a sniff.

“I picked these over the last couple days,” Molly explains as Caduceus starts sifting through the different pieces. “They all smelled really nice so I figured they’d taste good as a tea.”

“Unfortunately, Mister Mollymauk,” Caduceus starts, but Molly puts up a hand.

“Molly, to my friends,” he corrects, and Caduceus gives a small smirk.

“Molly… These would make everyone sick.” Molly’s smile fades. “I’ll teach you how to find the right parts of plants to make into tea, how’s that? I’ll be needing someone’s help anyways as I’m running low on my supply from home.”

“Sorry...” Molly hangs his head, but Caduceus lifts it with one large hand.

“I once poisoned my brother by making him try a mystery tea I made when I was young,” Caduceus says with a chuckle. “He was laid up in bed for days with every remedy attempt we had before I explained what I did. My parents were furious, and I learned how to make tea properly.” Everyone starts chuckling as they busy themselves with the preparing of breakfast and a new kettle for tea. “It takes time. Come on, while they finish breakfast, let’s find some flowers for tea later this week.”

Molly wipes away the tears on his face and nods, standing up to accompany Caduceus in this new task.

**Author's Note:**

> Like my work? Please consider supporting me on my ko-fi! I sketch or write a short drabble for each coffee.
> 
> https://ko-fi.com/costumersdelight


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